An Anime Hit Is Reborn on the Stage

Human-inhabited puppets replace some of the supernatural creatures in the stage adaptation of Princess Mononoke.

TOKYO — “Princess Mononoke,” an environmentally minded tale that began life as a Hayao Miyazaki movie, appears next week on the stage at Tokyo’s Aiia Theatre.

Adapted by British troupe Whole Hog Theatre, the stage version received a rare approval by Mr. Miyazaki after its members contacted Studio Ghibli, the animator’s production house.

Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli’s producer, said at a news conference last month that it had denied many requests from Hollywood and Japanese theater companies but were intrigued by Whole Hog’s request. “I want to watch a strange ‘Princess Mononoke,’ Mr. Suzuki said.

“Do what you want to do with it and don’t let anyone else get in the way,” Whole Hog director Alexandra Rutter recalled the studio telling her. “We are aware how amazingly lucky we are,” she said. “Our challenge is to create the same thing that Miyazaki-san creates in his films and translate it in a way that appeals to people and bring it to life.”

“Princess Mononoke,” a 1997 box-office hit in Japan that enlisted movie stars such as Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thornton and Jada Pinkett Smith when it was dubbed for an English-language release, tells the story of Ashitaka, a prince in exile who meets San, the human child of wolf gods. San is embroiled in a battle between fellow creatures of nature, both natural and supernatural, and an iron-smelting human colony tearing down their forest home as it expands.

In March, Whole Hog’s production of “Mononoke” opened in London, selling out all of its shows at the city’s Diorama Theatre. The Aiia in Tokyo, however, seats 800, as opposed to Diorama’s 49, with a stage triple the size. “Mononoke,” whose film version includes talking wolves, demons and extensive fight sequences, has been modified for the stage, and Ms. Rutter said it has been further tweaked for Aiia’s larger venue. (Whole Hog’s website includes a parental warning about “fantasy violence.”)

Puppets stand in for the fauna in Whole Hog’s production, said puppet designer Charlie Hoare, with actors holding puppet heads of animals and other times, in the case of the godlike forest spirits, multiple actors animating large puppet creations. In keeping with “Mononoke’s” environmental message, the troupe spent less than £300 (roughly $450) on them, often using recycled materials, Ms. Hoare said. “I think puppets are magic,” Ms. Rutter said. “They are just the perfect medium by which to tell a lot of the stories and create a lot of the characters.”

She, Ms. Hoare and Polly Boon recently created Whole Hog in Warwickshire, England, with the goal of providing more opportunities in theater for young artists. Most of “Mononoke’s” cast are under 25. “I think it works, in some ways, really well,” Ms. Rutter said. “San and Ashitaka are young characters, and it’s quite a lot about getting lost in youth and getting distracted by things.”